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Popularity on and off canvas
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One of the art world's most well-reputed artists can no longer 'see' her success.
Artemisia painted scenes from the David and Bathsheba story in at least 6 versions. This shows just how popular this theme was among commissioners. It depicts the biblical story of David seeing the wife of Uriah from the loggia of his palace. It is thanks to his union with Bathsheba that Jesus Christ's lineage can be traced to the House of David. This short description by Todd Gould for the screenplay of Invisible Women: Forgotten Artists of Florence provides a worthy overview of Artemisia's successful Florentine period: "In the early 1600s, Artemisia Gentileschi received some of the highest-paid commissions ever bestowed on a female artist of the period. Her reputation for grand-scale narrative works earned her not only significant sums of money, but also friendships with noted scientific and political leaders of the era, including Galileo and the Grand Duke Cosimo II, a descendent of the great Medici dynasty, celebrated patrons of the arts."